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Watching just 20 minutes of Punk:Attitude has got me yearning for yesteryear.

Does anyone else ever feel completely dis-enchanted with the state of music nowadays?

I mean, its fucking everywhere! We live in a culture where just about everyone has got instant access to music. Its all over the TV, the radio, the internet, just at the touch of a button.

Through the latter invention we can listen to just about anything we want, and have it readily at our fingertips. There's writers who have no professional experience and an audience of 5 billion, who all have a comment to make. Everyone has something to say, an opinion. What makes you informed?

Ipods and personal listening devices are also taking over the world. We can listen to music anywhere we like. Its transportable to all reaches of the earth. Pop the headphones on and off you go. So much for the conversation.

Downloading illegally is commonplace. People don't even have to pay for music anymore. New album? I'll add it to my library to go with the other 4000 albums.

The whole thing is so prominent that gigs and festivals are mainstream, big money business. People who aren't passionate about music are going to festivals nowadays, and making up the majority of the punters. There's big pound/dollar signs basically being draped around the place as we get ripped off left, right, and centre for food, a beer, and some water.

Where are the days when music meant something? Could have a say? Could be powerful? Could change something? Where are the days when you could go to a small dingy venue and see something that would knock you off your feet, without having people chatting about mundaneities as you try and watch? Where are the revolutionaries?

When are ever gonna get anything exciting like this again?

Its gone too far. Music was heading towards this anyway, and the internet has just sealed the deal. I recognise the irony in me saying this in a post on an online forum, and it may sound obvious, but, music...

Most of the things you've listed are good and I'm glad that they've happened. Don't get me wrong, I like a trawl through a record shop like everybody but the thought that right now, if I want to, I can listen to a Leadbelly record & then something that came out yesterday? That's brilliant and only leads to me becoming a more passionate music fan.

And it's not like music was all excellent back then. The year Strawberry Fields Forever came out, it was outsold by Engelbert Humperdinck. Music has always been 90% chaff and 10% wheat.

Revolutionary music is where it's always been, on the fringes. Go look for it.

Far fewer indie bands are being snapped up left right and centre by major labels attempting to cash in on alternative music, far more are struggling to get by on indie's or self releasing stuff for free.

In the 90's we had a few major festivals, with massive corporate sponsorship. Now those festivals are starting to struggle, and there are 5 mini 'fuck you corporations' festivals every week of the summer. Those fans that don't go for the music help pay for better bands, and then don't contribute to the crowd - THANK YOU GUYS!

On top of that, most people get there music for free. How fucking commercial is that? If your definition is 'Having profit, rather than artistic or other value, as a primary aim', I really think fewer artists than ever pursue music as a business.

Just think of The Beatles - certainly a credible band, but the money-making machine that went with them was incredible.

As others have said above, I think there's an element of rose-tinted glasses. The type of thing you say is lacking is still around, if you want to look for it. You say that things are too easy nowadays, but only if you're prepared to sit there and be fed the music rather than look for it.

Personally, I think I've been far more exposed to all kinds of music I wouldn't have otherwise heard if I was just relying on the NME, Radio 1 and bands who played locally as I did in the bad old days.

"People who aren't passionate about music are going to festivals nowadays, and making up the majority of the punters" Are they not aloud to see bands they've heard on the radio live? Are they not allowed to have fun. That is the most disgustingly snobbish statement I have heard in a loooong time.

Also, why shouldn't people express opinions about music, I thought that was the whole point of this site. I don't see why people need to be "informed" concerning music they like either. And if someone says something stupid, they look like a dick, nobody cares, people move on.

"Where are the days when music meant something? Could have a say? Could be powerful? Could change something? Where are the days when you could go to a small dingy venue and see something that would knock you off your feet, without having people chatting about mundaneities as you try and watch? Where are the revolutionaries?"
I think this is mainly down to personal experience, I have pretty much grown up with the internet, blogs & downloading, and I have seen many gigs in small venues that have blown me away.

And music doesn't really need to change society as a whole now. We may have a tory government, but we are hardly stuck in a rigid age of conservatism where a punk band on tv is considered dangerous.

To answer your initial question of "Does anyone else ever feel completely dis-enchanted with the state of music nowadays?" Absolutely, categorically not.

I'm 26 so Napster was just emerging towards the middle/end of high school for me. It hasn't made a difference to the number of things I've seen in dingy venues that will knock me off my feet though: you're looking in the wrong place. I'm not really sure what your point is, but I'm pretty sure you're wrong...

I think the future of music is the destruction of this idea that MAINSTREAM is the enemy. I don't like that chart music, which was once just the name for music that was in the chart, has also become a genre of it's own, synonymous with a Clubland compilation.
It makes sense though, from a business point of view. In a time where money is that much harder to make in music, it helps that there is one genre or style of music which is almost foolproof in being profitable (if you are on the right label and get the right push etc.). Not only that, but the handful of popstars that are really at the top is getting smaller and smaller. And the new arrivals to the chart are people peddling the exact same sound, but putting a new face on it.
I want to see this MAINSTREAM get opened up a little. I want to hear Twin Shadow, Metronomy, Teagan and Sara, Avi Buffalo, (insert lesser-known but still pop sounding act here) etc. alongside the newest J.Lo, or Lady Gaga song on the radio. I don't want to see the newest Rihanna video played 3 times in one hour on a music channel, when there are so many other artists out there who would fit the bill just as well.

I think the change needs to be in the people that control what is played to the masses (via radio, TV, etc.), rather than how individuals consume music. More freedom for people to consume any music they want when and where they want (which is happening), more diversity in the areas where music is broadcast to the masses. And not just playing new music at a certain time, but playing it alongside the established stuff. And less clinging to this idea of underground = good, mainstream = bad etc.

into some kind of 'essential range of lifestyle products' in a way that it never was before smartphones for instance

but music has ALWAYS been a commercial enterprise and involved with commerce in various forms of simplicity and complexity

I think the mainstream is bloated and lazy for the most part so I mainly choose not to swim in it but now and again it surprises you with something glorious that glues most of us together and marks a particular summer or whatnot, in the meantime the Faustian pact we seem to have made with technology allows us to take a dip in whatever stream takes our fancy... or indeed create entirely new streams of our own

essentially, music never loses its power, it just takes new forms and directions and media is slow (even these days) to recognise this

Also, don't be fooled by documentaries that sum up a magical period as you might miss out on the fact that there is a magical period going on around you right now

need to reevaluate that statement. In this current era of instant music i have to trawl through a whole load of shit before i find something good. Christ on a bike everyone's an expert these days, and it is absolutely everywhere. Music to me is a form of escapism, something to look forward too it should be appreciated and valued. I had an ipod and got rid of it, ill stick to my discman thanks. At least ill know that ill be giving new albums a proper chance without the option of switching over, letting them really sink in, finding the beauty and get my moneys worth.

Before the internet you had to know the right people or stumble onto a scene by chance. Now all need is the desire to go deeper in and you can do it on a grand scale. As a result more people are into odder music that ever before. Sometimes I feel like I can't through a stone out my window without hitting a person who loves Animal Collective, witch doesn't seem like much but is actually a big accomplishment. Play even AC's catchiest tune to a random bystander in the 80's and they'd probably puke on your shoes.

But usually the best idea is just to ignore the music you don't like. It's really much easier than you'd think.

and it's cheap and accessible too. What's the problem with that, unless you're a drivelling snob?

It just means you need to evolve a new set of skills (e.g. filtering) in order not to become jaded and hacked off with it all, but as others have said, that's really up to you. And you seem to be failing spectacularly, while blaming everything & everyone but yourself.

Your whole post makes me want to smack you across the back of the head. For one thing, you seem to be ticked off with not just music but the entire state of contemporary culture - too many bloggers, iPods are killing conversation, blah blah etc. Fine, go and live in a cave, see ya.

What you do have to say about music absolutely sucks. People downloading everything and being glued to their iPods 24 hours a day might be annoying, but it doesn't need to have any bearing whatsoever on your own musical enjoyment. The fact that you bring it into a lament about the state of music in general is very telling.

Also telling is your ideal of music "meaning something", being "powerful" and "having a say". Those terms are just a way of trying to elevate your particular musical taste into some sort of Great Artistic Canon. Sure, your music means something to you, and that's fine. But if the fact that everybody else can also have it at the click of a mouse pisses you off, and reduces its meaningfulness, then you're a dickhead.

There's an absolute shitload of wonderful music out there which is as far underground, experimental, untouched by commercial interests, risky, meaningful and "revolutionary" as you could ever want. If you were as passionate a music lover as you pretend to be, then you'd just be out there joyfully hoovering it all up. But no, you want to whinge because you're no longer the only person in the world who knows about Can or whatever, and you can't relate to people at festivals any more (probably because you're now older than them).

My friends and I would drive to San Diego, about 90 minutes south of Orange County, CA, to buy rare Bowie albums. We stood in line to meet Iggy Pop and have him sign his (funny-as-shit) book. We watched riots out in front of the Hollywood Palladium the night the Ramones oversold tickets, and we saw the Jesus and Mary Chain play in front of 25 people. Or whatever.

And for every I-saw-this-r-that-rock-star-back-in-the-day story, you guys (and me too) have a similar kind of story. Times change, and times stay the same.

So, while I wouldn't want to diminish *the way is was*, the way-it-is ain't too shabby. It's just music. Rock stars are still rock stars, if the way we see them isn't just slightly different.

As for "commercialism". Well, if anything, it's less than it used to be. And, I sorta miss that.

but you just gotta dig deeper dude. Ignore the stuff you don't like on MTV or whatevs, don't go to V Festival if you hate the radio 1 crowd and go to more gigs. Music is more diverse than it has ever been and this will only continue to happen, scenes are popping up all over the place and it's so exciting at the moment. man....music is awesome!